The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered removal of fake reports and social media content claiming that Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, dozens of other judges and union ministers travelled to London on public expense to play in a Badminton tournament.

Justice Tejas Karia directed the government to issue notifications requiring social media platforms, search engines, digital publishers, and other intermediaries to remove, disable and de-index the “false, malicious and derogatory” content within 24 hours.

"Members of the public are further restrained from uploading, publishing, circulating, sharing or otherwise disseminating the Impugned Content on any social media platform, search engine, web-hosting platform, digital media platform or other online media or platform," the Court ordered.

The content to be removed includes reports published by news platforms like The Print, National Herald and The Tribune. A tweet by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi is also listed as the link to be removed.

Justice Karia observed that the material was capable of undermining public confidence in the judiciary as it "indicates a systematic misinformation campaign intended to malign the reputation of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts".

"The Impugned Content does not merely amount to criticism, comment or fair reportage, but appears to be founded on demonstrably incorrect factual assertions, including the circulation of photographs unrelated to the Event and the attribution of participation to persons who, on the material placed before this Court, were not present at the Event. The dissemination of such false and misleading information, particularly when directed against Constitutional Courts, has the potential to cause serious and irreversible injury to public confidence in the justice delivery system," the Court ruled.

The Court has kept the matter for compliance on July 17.

The Court passed the order after a petition was filed by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) seeking the removal of fake news and posts claiming that several dozen judges participated in the government-sponsored 2nd International Bar and Bench Badminton Championship held in London on June 7. 

Notably, viral social media posts recently claimed that around 75 Indian judges, along with the Union ministers and CJI Kant, travelled to London to participate in a badminton tournament at taxpayers’ expense.

However, the government’s fact-checking unit rejected several key allegations. According to PIB Fact Check, claims that Rijiju and Meghwal were in London participating in the event were false and the viral photographs being circulated were actually from a badminton tournament held at Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi in November 2025, not London.

Senior Advocate Apoorv Kurup, appearing for the BAI, submitted that the event was organised to promote sportsmanship and camaraderie within the legal fraternity but was subsequently subjected to a misinformation campaign.

Appearing for the Union government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that photographs circulating online were not from the London event but from a national-level Bar and Bench badminton tournament held at Delhi’s Thyagaraj Stadium in November 2025.

He further stated that the Chief Justice of India had not participated in any badminton tournament in London and that the ministers named in the reports had not visited the United Kingdom during the relevant period.

After considering the case, the Court concluded that the material appeared to form part of a systematic misinformation campaign against the judiciary.

Therefore, it directed authorities to preserve subscriber and account information of those responsible for uploading the content and to initiate appropriate legal action in accordance with the law.

Senior Advocate Apoorv Kurup along with advocates Rajat Nair, Dhruv Pande and Gurjas Narula appeared for the Badminton Association of India.

Central government was represented through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Ashish Dixit.

[Read Order]